The Chronology having been brought up to Noah's days, the History takes us back (not forward). men = sing, with art. = the man Adam. See App-14 . earth = Hebrew. h'adamah, ground. them: i.e. to Adam and Eve, as in Genesis 1:27 and Genesis 5:2 . read more
"And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all that they chose."The problem that immediately confronts us here regards the identity of the "sons of God." All efforts to identify these with angels or other supernatural creatures should be rejected.THE "SONS OF GOD" WERE NOT ANGELSThe reasons why this passage cannot be applied either to... read more
Genesis 6:1-2. Men began—daughters—sons of God, &c — An evident distinction has been made in sacred scripture between the children of God and the children of men; between those who were the true servants of Jehovah, and those who were the slaves of their own evil desires and passions. The former, by intermarrying with the daughters of those who had apostatized from God or never known him, were drawn themselves into the same degeneracy; whence that universal depravation succeeded, which... read more
There are three major views about the identity of the sons of God.1. They were fallen angels who married women. [Note: The Book of Enoch (a second century B.C. pseudepigrapha); Philo; Josephus; Justin Martyr; Tertullian; Cyprian; Ambrose; Pember; Clarence Larkin The Spirit World; Henry Morris, The Genesis Record; C. Fred Dickason, Angels: Elect and Evil; M. R. DeHaan, 508 Answers to Bible Questions; Boice, 1:245-48; R. S. Hendel, "When the Sons of God Cavorted with the Daughters of Men," Bible... read more
The sins of the sons of God 6:1-4 read more
2. God’s sorrow over man’s wickedness 6:1-8As wickedness increased on the earth God determined to destroy the human race with the exception of those few people to whom He extended grace."Stories of a great flood sent in primeval times by gods to destroy mankind followed by some form of new creation are so common to so many peoples in different parts of the world, between whom no kind of historical contact seems possible, that the notion seems almost to be a universal feature of the human... read more
The Sons of God and the Daughters of Men1-4. This fragment seems to have been placed here as an instance of the wickedness which necessitated the Flood. Stories of unions between deities and the women of earth, which resulted in gigantic and corrupt races, were common to many nations of antiquity; and it is now generally held that we have here traces of a similar tradition among the Hebrews, which had survived to the writer’s day. But though the passage retains signs of these primitive ideas,... read more
VI.(1) When men (the adam) began to multiply.—The multiplication of the race of Adam was probably comparatively slow, because of the great age to which each patriarch attained before his first-born was brought into the world: though, as the name given is not necessarily that of the eldest, but of the son who enjoyed the birthright, it does not follow that in every case the one named was absolutely the eldest son. There may have been other substitutions besides that of Seth for Cain; and Noah,... read more
The Lesson of the Tower Genesis 6:4 The form of this story belongs to the early stages of an ascending scale of civilization. The soul of the narrative is for all time. Take one obvious aspect of that soul. The builders of city and tower were men of great ambition. They would dare high things and they would do them. This is well, for God made us all for ambition. But it is part of the tragedy of our humanity that each day we are tempted to sully ambition with some phase of latent or expressed... read more
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Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Genesis 6:1-8
6:1-9:29 REBELLION AND JUDGMENTThe wickedness of human society (6:1-8)As the population grew and societies developed, people again showed the tendency to want to exist independently of God. Like their original ancestors, they wanted to be as God and live for ever (cf. 3:5,22).It seems that certain angels (the probable meaning of ‘sons of God’ in this story; cf. Job 1:6; Job 38:7; Daniel 3:25) had, in rebellion against God, taken human form and co-operated with ambitious people in trying to... read more